Coal Takeovers in Australia to Settle Down Says Industry Analyst

Australia won't see as many takeovers in the coal mining industry as many potential targets have already been acquired after the recent surge in acquisitions as per UBS's head of metals and mining Campbell Stewart.

He said that the recent wave of coal deals is over and some slowdown in activity can be expected because of lower supply.

Australia has seen the highest level of coal mergers and acquisitions in the last five years in 2009 as per Bloomberg data. The largest of these was the takeover of Felix Resources Ltd by Yanzhou Coal Mining Co Ltd for Australian $3.5 billion.

Nearly $4 billion worth of takeover deals happened in 2009 as compared to just $ 2.23 billion worth in the year 2008. In 2010 there has been $3.35 billion worth of coal mergers and acquisition deals so far.

Melbourne based Campbell said that while demand is pretty constant new targets are becoming harder to identify. That is why there are less deals being announced in Australia and more in the Asian and African nations.